10 MODERN EDUCATION
enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that I used to think 'boys were
horrid' before that... I was influenced by a young lady, a
graduate , .. who was interested in settlement work, and
taught in our school for a year, and I desired to enter the
same field of work. ... I read many stories of tenement life
which developed a broad sympathy, and altruistic ideals.
"I was always writing something new in the story line.
Many a time I've written a story when studying seemed to be
out of the question. .. . Also my imagination found vent
in my music. ... I used to dream of being a wonderful
violinist, pianist, singer, reader, and master of almost all the
careers I had knowledge of."
It would be perfectly easy to cite parallel descriptions of what
adolescence has meant to the growing boy. There need be no
harm in day-dreams. They may turn to advantage if the young
person is led to live out some of the ideals which they represent;
if, for example, a girl who dreams of deeds of mercy is led to
perform one, or if a boy who dreams of being a hero is led to do
something even mildly heroic. Day-dreams have a weakening
effect upon character only if they remain mere dreams, or if
they are so far removed from actual life as to have no bearing
upon it.
But it would be a great mistake to suppose that all adoles-
cents tend to wallow in sentimentality. Many adults, especially
of the type known as extroverts, i.e. men and women more
remarkable for action than for reflection, are unable to recall
any such broodings as those described above. But in all
adolescents alike, life makes a bold spring forward, childhood
is left behind and is sometimes even despised, and the future
is looked into, for all the promise that it holds. It is indeed a
momentous period; and one of the saddest sights in all our
social life is that of groups (or pairs) of boys and girls of
adolescent age, lounging at street corners, or wandering in
country lanes, with little or nothing to do except get into